Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an animal moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped, meaning 'two feet'. Types of bipedal movement include walking or running and hopping.
Euparkeria is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptile from the Triassic of South Africa. Euparkeria is close to the ancestry of Archosauria, the reptile group that includes crocodilians, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs.
Grallator is an ichnogenus which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs. Grallator-type footprints have been found in formations dating from the Early Triassic through to the early Cretaceous periods. They are found in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, Australia, Brazil and China, but are most abundant on the east coast of North America, especially the Triassic and Early Jurassic formations of the northern part of the Newark Supergroup. The name Grallator translates into "stilt walker", although the actual length and form of the trackmaking legs varied by species, usually unidentified. The related term "Grallae" is an ancient name for the presumed group of long-legged wading birds, such as storks and herons. These footprints were given this name by their discoverer, Edward Hitchcock, in 1858.
Lagerpeton is a genus of lagerpetid avemetatarsalian, comprising a single species, L. chanarensis. First described from the Chañares Formation of Argentina by A. S. Romer in 1971, Lagerpeton's anatomy is somewhat incompletely known, with fossil specimens accounting for the pelvic girdle, hindlimbs, posterior presacral, sacral and anterior caudal vertebrae. Skull and shoulder material has also been described.
Teleocrater is a genus of avemetatarsalian archosaur from the Middle Triassic Manda Formation of Tanzania. The name was coined by English paleontologist Alan Charig in his 1956 doctoral dissertation, but was only formally published in 2017 by Sterling Nesbitt and colleagues. The genus contains the type and only species T. rhadinus. Uncertainty over the affinities of Teleocrater have persisted since Charig's initial publication; they were not resolved until Nesbitt et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis. They found that Teleocrater is most closely related to the similarly enigmatic Yarasuchus, Dongusuchus, and Spondylosoma in a group that was named the Aphanosauria. Aphanosauria was found to be the sister group of the Ornithodira, the group containing dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
Dinosauromorpha is a clade of avemetatarsalians that includes the Dinosauria (dinosaurs) and some of their close relatives. It was originally defined to include dinosauriforms and lagerpetids, with later formulations specifically excluding pterosaurs from the group. Birds are the only dinosauromorphs which survive to the present day.
Avemetatarsalia is a clade of diapsid reptiles containing all archosaurs more closely related to birds than to crocodilians. The two most successful groups of avemetatarsalians were the dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Dinosaurs were the largest terrestrial animals for much of the Mesozoic Era, and one group of small feathered dinosaurs has survived up to the present day. Pterosaurs were the first flying vertebrates and persisted through the Mesozoic before dying out at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event. Both dinosaurs and pterosaurs appeared in the Triassic Period, shortly after avemetatarsalians as a whole. The name Avemetatarsalia was first established by British palaeontologist Michael Benton in 1999. An alternate name is Pan-Aves, or "all birds", in reference to its definition containing all animals, living or extinct, which are more closely related to birds than to crocodilians.
Pterosauromorpha is one of the two basic divisions of Ornithodira that includes pterosaurs and all taxa that are closer to them than to dinosaurs and their close relatives. In addition to pterosaurs, Pterosauromorpha also includes the basal clade Lagerpetidae and some other Late Triassic ornithodirans.
Eubrontes is the name of fossilised dinosaur footprints dating from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. They have been identified from France, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia (Queensland), US, India, China and Brazil (South).
Otozoum is an extinct ichnogenus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic-Middle Jurassic sandstones. Footprints were made by heavy, bipedal or, sometimes, quadrupedal animals with a short stride that walked on four toes directed forward. These footprints are relatively large, over 20 cm in pes length. Otozoum differs from Plateosaurus by having a notable homopody.
Aardonyx is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It is known from the type species Aardonyx celestae found from the Early Jurassic Elliot Formation of South Africa. A. celestae was named after Celeste Yates, who prepared much of the first known fossil material of the species. It has arm features that are intermediate between basal sauropodomorphs and more derived sauropods.
Macropodosaurus is an ichnogenus of therizinosaurid footprints from the Late Cretaceous of Asia, North America and Poland. The ichnogenus is currently monotypic only including the type ichnospecies M. gravis, described and named in 1964.
Diodorus is a genus of silesaurid dinosauromorph that lived during the Late Triassic in what is now Morocco. Fossils were discovered in the Timezgadiouine Formation of the Argana Basin, and were used to name the new genus and species Diodorus scytobrachion. The genus name honors the mythological king Diodorus and the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus; the specific name is ancient Greek for 'leathery arm' and also honors the mythographer Dionysius Scytobrachion. The holotype specimen is a partial dentary bone (front of the lower jaw), and assigned specimens include isolated teeth, two humeri (upper arm bones), a metatarsal (foot bone), and femur (thigh bone).
The 20th century in ichnology refers to advances made between the years 1900 and 1999 in the scientific study of trace fossils, the preserved record of the behavior and physiological processes of ancient life forms, especially fossil footprints. Significant fossil trackway discoveries began almost immediately after the start of the 20th century with the 1900 discovery at Ipolytarnoc, Hungary of a wide variety of bird and mammal footprints left behind during the early Miocene. Not long after, fossil Iguanodon footprints were discovered in Sussex, England, a discovery that probably served as the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
Chelichnus is an ichnogenus of Permian tetrapod footprint. The name means tortoise traces, because the shape of the prints was originally mistakenly thought to be produced by a tortoise. This is now known to be incorrect, as tortoises did not evolve until much later. It was first found in Corncockle Quarry in Dumfries, Scotland, and described by Rev. Henry Duncan.
Limnopus is an ichnogenus of ancient tetrapod footprint. Its footprints have been found in Moscovian aged-rocks situated in Alveley, Shropshire, England, Colorado and West Virginia.
Gwyneddichnium is an ichnogenus from the Late Triassic of North America and Europe. It represents a form of reptile footprints and trackways, likely produced by small tanystropheids such as Tanytrachelos. Gwyneddichnium includes a single species, Gwyneddichnium major. Two other proposed species, G. elongatum and G. minore, are indistinguishable from G. major apart from their smaller size and minor taphonomic discrepancies. As a result, they are considered junior synonyms of G. major.
Protochirotherium, also known as Protocheirotherium, is a Late Permian?-Early Triassic ichnotaxon consisting of five-fingered (pentadactyl) footprints and whole tracks, discovered in Germany and later Morocco, Poland and possibly also Italy. The type ichnospecies is P. wolfhagenense, discovered by R. Kunz in 1999 alongside Chirotherium tracks, was named and described in 2004 and re-evaluated in 2007; a second ichnospecies, P. hauboldi, also exists, which was initially described as an ichnospecies of Brachychirotherium. Protochirotherium-like prints have also been documented from the Late Permian of Italy, possibly representing the oldest known fossils of mesaxonic archosauromorphs.
Kongonaphon is an extinct genus of lagerpetid avemetatarsalians from the Middle to Late Triassic of Madagascar. It contains a single species, Kongonaphon kely, which is known from a fragmentary partial skeleton. This fossil hails from the late Ladinian or early Carnian-age "basal Isalo II beds". As the first lagerpetid found in Africa, Kongonaphon extends the range of the family significantly. It possessed a combination of features from various other lagerpetids, but developed particularly long and slender leg bones. Kongonaphon is also the first lagerpetid for which fossils of the snout and teeth are known. It was likely an insectivore based on the shape and texture of its teeth.
Wakinyantanka is an ichnogenus of footprint produced by a large theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota. Wakinyantanka tracks are large with three long, slender toes with occasional impressions of a short hallux and narrow metatarsals. Wakinyantanka was the first dinosaur track to be discovered in the Hell Creek Formation, which remain rare in the preservational conditions of the rocks. The potential trackmakers may be a large oviraptorosaur or a small tyrannosaurid.
